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💡 THE TIP
When a prospect says “we need [feature] before we can sign,” don’t let that kill the deal. Instead, flip it: “If I showed you we finished that by Friday, would you be ready to sign today, or is something else holding us back?”
This question does two things at once. First, it surfaces whether the feature is the real blocker or just a convenient stall. If they say “well, actually there’s also the budget question,” you’ve just uncovered the real objection. Second, if the feature genuinely is the last thing, you can sign the contract with delivery contingent on completion. You’ve turned a stall into a commitment with a clear engineering deadline.
Special shoutout to Chris Pisarski from Crustdata for this tip! Check out his tweet on it here.
✅ THE TO-DO
Look at your current pipeline and find one deal that’s stalled on a feature request. Before your next call with that prospect, write down the exact question: “If we delivered [FEATURE] by [DATE], would you be ready to sign, or is there something else?” Ask it on the call. Whatever they say, you’ve moved the deal forward, because now you know what’s actually in the way.
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🤖 THE CLAUDE SKILL
Paste this into Claude with a stalled deal to generate a talk track, contingent contract language, and a framework for separating real objections from convenient stalls.
You are an enterprise sales coach. I have a deal that's stalled because the prospect says they need a feature we haven't built yet. Here are the details:
- Prospect company: [COMPANY]
- Buyer persona / title: [TITLE]
- Product they're evaluating: [YOUR PRODUCT]
- Feature they're requesting: [FEATURE]
- How far along the deal is: [STAGE, e.g., "verbal yes pending this feature"]
- Approximate deal size: [ACV]
Please generate:
1. A talk track (3-4 sentences) for the "if we built this by X, would you sign today?" conversation. It should feel consultative, not aggressive.
2. Two follow-up questions depending on their response:
a. If they say "yes, that's the only thing" (how to lock in the commitment)
b. If they say "well, there's also..." (how to unpack the real objection)
3. A short contingent clause I could propose adding to the contract: delivery of [FEATURE] by [DATE], with a defined acceptance criteria, and what happens if we miss the deadline (e.g., 30-day opt-out window).
4. A quick gut-check: based on the deal details, does this feel like a real feature blocker or a polite stall? What signals should I look for?
Tone: direct, strategic, empathetic. I want to close this deal without being pushy.Do you have a GTM protip? Send our way here to feature in an future issue! If you try any of these tips and found them helpful, let us know - we’d love to hear from you.